Category: Classic

Carlyle’s House and Other Sketches marks the first publication of one of Virginia Woolf’s very earliest notebooks. Recently unearthed from a collection of private papers, it contains a series of six striking and semi-autobiographical sketches, each transcribed and edited by Dr. David Bradshaw. From the cold formality of London townhouses with their rows of austere portraits, to the dull chaos of the academic’s abode, and the eccentric spinster’s Hampstead home, Virginia Woolf paints a series of portraits of everyday life, capturing character and setting in exquisite detail. Experimental in style, and heralding the later masterpieces Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, this early notebook is quintessential Woolf.

( Courtesy of GoodReads, paperback 52 pages )

The New York Times Book Review called The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, J. P. Donleavy’s hilarious, bittersweet tale of a lost young man’s existential odyssey, a triumphant piece of writing, achieved with that total authority, total mastery which shows that a fine writer is fully extended… .” In the years before and after World War II, Balthazar B is the world’s last shy, elegant young man. Born to riches in Paris and raised by his governess, Balthazar is shipped off to a British boarding school, where he meets the noble but naughty Beefy. The duo matriculate to Trinity College, Dublin, where Balthazar reads zoology and Beefy prepares for holy orders, all the while sharing amorous adventures high and low, until their university careers come to an abrupt and decidedly unholy end. Written with trademark bravado and a healthy dose of sincerity, The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B is vintage Donleavy. ”

( Courtesy of New York Times , paperback 380 pages )

An old monk is tricked by the Devil into undertaking a voyage to a remote island to save the souls of thousands who live there. He arrives on the island which is actually a desolate one, inhabited only by colonies of millions of penguins. The old monk whose eyesight and hearing are almost nonexistent, mistakes them for humans and begins baptizing them. In Heaven, God finds Himself in a dilemma; the old monk’s unwavering faith compels him to regard the baptisms as genuine. However, in Christian theology, only humans have souls – hence God is forced to grant the thousands of newly baptized penguins with souls! This is the beginning of their journey into “civilization.” They form communities, governments, elect their representatives, have social norms, wage wars and generally do whatever “civilized” people do. What happens to this bizarre community forms the rest of the plot of this very interesting and amusing satire.

( Courtesy of Loyal Books;  253 pages , paperback )